COVID-19 and the Digital Divide: Will Social Workers Help Bridge the Gap?

Gibson, Allison; Bardach, Shoshana H.; Pope, Natalie D.

doi:10.1080/01634372.2020.1772438

Cited by 34 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 6 publications

(6 reference statements)

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“…The use of mHealth tools for COVID-19 education, risk reduction, and symptom monitoring may complement existing prevention strategies [ 98 ]. Our findings also highlight potential opportunities for mHealth tools to reduce racial/ethnic and age disparities in COVID-19 exposure and outcomes [ 99 , 100 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 86%

Attitudes Toward Using COVID-19 mHealth Tools Among Adults With Chronic Health Conditions: Secondary Data Analysis of the COVID-19 Impact Survey

Camacho-Rivera¹,

Islam²,

Rivera³

et al. 2020

JMIR Mhealth Uhealth

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Background Adults with chronic conditions are disproportionately burdened by COVID-19 morbidity and mortality. Although COVID-19 mobile health (mHealth) apps have emerged, research on attitudes toward using COVID-19 mHealth tools among those with chronic conditions is scarce. Objective This study aimed to examine attitudes toward COVID-19, identify determinants of COVID-19 mHealth tool use across demographic and health-related characteristics, and evaluate associations between chronic health conditions and attitudes toward using COVID-19 mHealth tools (eg, mHealth or web-based methods for tracking COVID-19 exposures, symptoms, and recommendations). Methods We used nationally representative data from the COVID-19 Impact Survey collected from April to June 2020 (n=10,760). Primary exposure was a history of chronic conditions, which were defined as self-reported diagnoses of cardiometabolic, respiratory, immune-related, and mental health conditions and overweight/obesity. Primary outcomes were attitudes toward COVID-19 mHealth tools, including the likelihood of using (1) a mobile phone app to track COVID-19 symptoms and receive recommendations; (2) a website to track COVID-19 symptoms, track location, and receive recommendations; and (3) an app using location data to track potential COVID-19 exposure. Outcome response options for COVID-19 mHealth tool use were extremely/very likely, moderately likely, or not too likely/not likely at all. Multinomial logistic regression was used to compare the likelihood of COVID-19 mHealth tool use between people with different chronic health conditions, with not too likely/not likely at all responses used as the reference category for each outcome. We evaluated the determinants of each COVID-19 mHealth intervention using Poisson regression. Results Of the 10,760 respondents, 21.8% of respondents were extremely/very likely to use a mobile phone app or a website to track their COVID-19 symptoms and receive recommendations. Additionally, 24.1% of respondents were extremely/very likely to use a mobile phone app to track their location and receive push notifications about whether they have been exposed to COVID-19. After adjusting for age, race/ethnicity, sex, socioeconomic status, and residence, adults with mental health conditions were the most likely to report being extremely/very or moderately likely to use each mHealth intervention compared to those without such conditions. Adults with respiratory-related chronic diseases were extremely/very (conditional odds ratio 1.16, 95% CI 1.00-1.35) and moderately likely (conditional odds ratio 1.23, 95% CI 1.04-1.45) to use a mobile phone app to track their location and receive push notifications about whether they have been exposed to COVID-19. Conclusions Our study demonstrates that attitudes toward using COVID-19 mHealth tools vary widely across modalities (eg, web-based method vs app) and chronic health conditions. These findings may inform the adoption of long-term engagement with COVID-19 apps, which is crucial for determining their potential in reducing disparities in COVID-19 morbidity and mortality among individuals with chronic health conditions.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 86%

Attitudes Toward Using COVID-19 mHealth Tools Among Adults With Chronic Health Conditions: Secondary Data Analysis of the COVID-19 Impact Survey

Camacho-Rivera¹,

Islam²,

Rivera³

et al. 2020

JMIR Mhealth Uhealth

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“…Free communication platforms [44,59,[73][74][75][76] Readily available web-based training [77][78][79] Standardized documentation and real time reporting to improve quality of care [80] Digital photographs and asynchronous sharing to circumvent connectivity issues [77] Wearable devices, remote monitoring sensors and other technologies as early warning tools [59,81] Automatic speech analysis for diagnosis and monitoring of dementia [82] Enhanced integration of specialty expertise care of nursing home residents [70,83] Possibility of daily community collaborative rounds involving multiple services providers in nursing homes [84] Technology that is easy to understand pertaining to different interfaces, passwords, and maintenance [56,70] T-Threats Ambiguous/technical jargon for descriptive terms [85] Large variability of available telehealth platforms [70] Lack of sustained insurance reimbursement [11] Digital divide for some due to lack of equipment, limited literacy, and lack of assistance [56,63,72,[86][87][88][89][90][91][92][93] Ageism/stigma leading to de-prioritization of older people [94,95] Failure to include older people in standardizing telehealth [56] Lack of tested clinical tools for telehealth use [65,96] Technical failures and patient dropout …”

Section: O-opportunitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Telehealth Use in Geriatrics Care during the COVID-19 Pandemic—A Scoping Review and Evidence Synthesis

Doraiswamy

Jithesh

Mamtani

et al. 2021

IJERPH

112

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Introduction: Globally, the COVID-19 pandemic has affected older people disproportionately. Prior to the pandemic, some studies reported that telehealth was an efficient and effective form of health care delivery, particularly for older people. There has been increased use of telehealth and publication of new literature on this topic during the pandemic, so we conducted a scoping review and evidence synthesis for telehealth use in geriatric care to summarize learning from these new data. Methods: We searched PubMed, Embase, and the World Health Organization’s COVID-19 global research database for articles published between 1 January and 20 August 2020. We included 79 articles that met our inclusion criteria. The information collected has been synthesized and presented as descriptive statistics. Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) have also been discussed. Results: The articles included in our review provide some evidence of effective provision of preventive, curative, and rehabilitative telehealth services for older people, but they highlight a greater focus on curative services and are mostly concentrated in high-income countries. We identified convenience and affordability as the strengths of telehealth use in geriatric care. Weaknesses identified include the inability of telehealth to cater to the needs of older people with specific physical and cognitive limitations. While the threats of increasing inequity and the lack of standardization in the provision of age-friendly telehealth services remain, we identified opportunities for technologic advancements driven by simplicity and user-friendliness for older people. Conclusion: Telehealth offers futuristic promise for the provision of essential health care services for older people worldwide. However, the extent of these services via telehealth appears to be currently limited in low and low-middle income countries. Optimizing telehealth services that can be accessed by older people requires greater government investments and active engagement by broader participation of older people, their caregivers, physicians and other health care providers, technology experts, and health managers.

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“…Across the nation, accreditation organizations for social workers understood the pandemic would impact students' education, and began to revise their regulations pertaining to field hours (Canadian Association for Social Work Education, 2020; CSWE, 2020a; Scottish Social Services Council, 2020; Social Work England, 2020). While telemedicine provided an alternative to traditional clinical field placements (Chatterjee, 2020;Gibson et al, 2020), a field education experience that could be responsive to the rapidly emerging needs in the community required more creativity.…”

Section: An Alternative Field Placement Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Eradicating social isolation has been identified as one of the twelve grand challenges for social work (Grand Challenges of Social Work, 2020). Social workers, in turn, have recognized their ethical obligation to provide services, particularly to older populations, during this pandemic (Berg-Weger & Schroepfer, 2020;Gibson et al, 2020;Hagan, 2020;Miller & Lee, 2020;Walter-McCabe, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Isolation in the midst of a pandemic: social work students rapidly respond to community and field work needs

Morris

Dragone

Peabody

et al. 2020

Social Work Education

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In the midst of a pandemic, many social work students are currently displaced from their field education, while the needs of their communities are exacerbated. Due to stay-at-home orders, the risk of experiencing social isolation and loneliness, already a major social problem prior to the crisis, has increased, especially for older adults. Seeking to step up in the context of a public emergency, graduate social work students in the United States created a project called GiftsofGab.org, which is a volunteer call-based companion coordination project that connects social work students with those in need of social interaction. We provide a case study of this project and argue that this kind of student-initiated action learning project can provide a workable alternative field placement model in times of crisis and is consistent with the community practice mission of social work.

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COVID-19 and the Digital Divide: Will Social Workers Help Bridge the Gap?

Cited by 34 publications

References 6 publications

Attitudes Toward Using COVID-19 mHealth Tools Among Adults With Chronic Health Conditions: Secondary Data Analysis of the COVID-19 Impact Survey

Attitudes Toward Using COVID-19 mHealth Tools Among Adults With Chronic Health Conditions: Secondary Data Analysis of the COVID-19 Impact Survey

Telehealth Use in Geriatrics Care during the COVID-19 Pandemic—A Scoping Review and Evidence Synthesis

Isolation in the midst of a pandemic: social work students rapidly respond to community and field work needs

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